Thursday, June 26, 2014

The
Brennan Center regularly compiles the latest news concerning the corrosive
nature of money in New York State politics—and the ongoing need for public
financing and robust campaign finance reform. This week’s links were
contributed by Eric Petry and Syed Zaidi.

As the
legislative session came to a close last week, comprehensive campaign
finance reform remained stalled. Opposition to reform was led by Republicans in
the state Senate. This week, the breakaway Democrats who had formed a coalition
with Republicans to control the Senate announced
plans to abandon the arrangement. The leader of the Independent Democratic
Conference, Sen. Jeffrey Klein, said the IDC would form a coalition with
Democrats next year. The change is expected to have implications for public
campaign financing and other reforms left on the table at the end of this year’s
session. Governor Cuomo has renewed his pledge to “work to elect
people who support” the progressive agenda this election season. Whether the
planned Democrat-IDC coalition has a majority
in the chamber next year will depend on the outcome of the November elections.

Governor Cuomo Has Raised Millions through the
LLC Loophole

In the
three and a half years since his election in 2010, Governor Andrew Cuomo has collected more than $6.2 million
in campaign funds—more any other New York politician—through a loophole that he
previously pledged to close. Under state regulations, limited liability
companies are considered individuals and permitted to
contribute up to $150,000 per year to candidates and political parties.
However, since there is no limit on the number of LLCs a corporation or an
individual may create, it effectively allows unlimited campaign contributions.
In its preliminary report released last December,
the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption recommended closing
the loophole due to “the appearance of a relationship between large donations
and legislation that specifically benefits large donors.”

Outside Money Plays Big Role in New York
Congressional Primaries

Federal
Election Commission filings compiled by the Sunlight Foundation demonstrate
that outside groups were
actively spending money in New York’s Congressional primary races. In the 21st
Congressional District in upstate New York, outside groups came to the rescue
of former Bush administration aide Elise Stefanik, in her primary battle
against investment fund manager Matt Doheny. American Crossroads, the Karl
Rove-linked super PAC, spent almost $800,000 on the race criticizing Doheny as irresponsible and a “perennial loser.” Another group, New York 2014, was formed just last
month and, despite its nondescript name, all of its $370,000 in expenditures
were in support of Stefanik. New York 2014 is funded by five rich
out-of-district contributors, all with key roles at financial firms. The
biggest donor to New York 2014 is Kenneth Griffin, founder and CEO of hedge
fund Citadel LLC, who also recently made the largest single
contribution
in the history of the state of Illinois. Stefanik emerged as the victor in this week’s primary,
and will go on to face Democrat Aaron Woolf in November. Outside groups were
also active in the 1st
Congressional district Republican primary race between Lee Zeldin and George
Demos, where independent expenditures hit $1.8 million. Such groups are likely
to be a factor in the upcoming general election races as well.

Green Party Candidate to Challenge Cuomo,
Astorino

Howie
Hawkins, the Green Party’s gubernatorial nominee, will compete against Gov. Cuomo and
Republican nominee Rob Astorino in the general election. Fordham law professor
Zephyr Teachout, meanwhile, is collecting signatures to run against Cuomo in
the Democratic primary. She has criticized the governor over his failure to pass
campaign finance reform to address public corruption. An April Siena poll showed that a left-leaning
challenger to Cuomo from the Working Families Party would garner 24 percent of
the vote and cut Cuomo’s lead by 19 percent. Although the WFP has already
endorsed Cuomo, Hawkins said that he is the “ticket that 24 % is looking for.” The
most recent Siena poll however illustrated
that Hawkins would capture only 4 percent of the vote in a race with Cuomo and
Astorino. Nonetheless, Hawkins remains optimistic: “People have gone through
some different things and they’ve basically seen they’ve got to be independent
and speak for themselves, instead of attach themselves to the latest liberal
Democratic hope,” he stated.

Friday, June 20, 2014

The Brennan Center regularly compiles the latest news
concerning the corrosive nature of money in New York State politics—and the
ongoing need for public financing and robust campaign finance reform. This
week’s links were contributed by Syed Zaidi.

The New York State
legislative session is ending this week without major progress on big-ticket
issues such as campaign finance reform, minimum wage, and the women’s equality
agenda. The Daily Gazette called the session a “big flop.” The
upstate newspaper said that the failure to pass campaign finance reform would allow
big money to continue “to influence elections at the expense of worthy
candidates who don't have access to large donors.” Although the legislature had
several months to work to find solutions to these pressing concerns, they
largely failed to address them.

Law
Professor Teachout Plans to Mount Primary Challenge to Gov. Cuomo

Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham University law professor, is
collecting signatures to
mount a Democratic primary challenge to Governor Andrew Cuomo. Her decision
to run follows a contentious Working Families Party convention, where the third
party nominated Cuomo for their ballot line in this year’s gubernatorial
election. Teachout however, still garnered 41.3 percent of the vote at the
convention. Now, she needs at least 15,000 signatures by registered Democrats
to secure her name on the ballot. “Four years ago, Andrew Cuomo stood on the
steps of a courthouse named after Boss Tweed and promised to clean up
corruption in New York State. But he, as Gov. Cuomo, has become the problem
that candidate Cuomo promised to fix,” Teachout told
the press. She also leveled
criticisms against the governor’s economic and fiscal policies, and emphasized
the importance of reforming campaign finance to raise the voices of average
voters. “I believe in democracy, not donors,” she said.

Mistrial
in Corruption Case Involving State Sen. Smith

On Tuesday, Federal District Court Judge Kenneth M. Karas declared
a mistrial in the corruption case involving New York State Senator Malcolm
Smith and former Vice Chairman of the Queens County Republican Committee
Vincent Tabone. Prosecutors had failed to provide the defense with recordings
of telephone calls and text messages from a government informer, Moses Stern,
which may have been relevant to the trial. Since more than 28 hours of the
conversations were in Yiddish, the defense asked the judge for more time to
translate and digest the recordings. Some of the jurors could
not serve for this extended period of time, which would have pushed the
trial into mid-July. Defense attorneys for Smith and Tabone did not consent to
going forward with the trial with fewer jurors, leading Judge Karas to schedule
a new trial for January 5th, 2015. The trial of the third
defendant—former New York City
Councilman Daniel Halloran, who allegedly served as an intermediary for Smith’s
bribery schemes—will resume in a week.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

The Brennan Center regularly compiles the latest news concerning the corrosive nature of money in New York State politics—and the ongoing need for public financing and robust campaign finance reform. This week’s links were contributed by Syed Zaidi.

In a guest column for the Post-Standard,
David Rubin, a former dean at Syracuse University, wrote that the trial public
financing program for the state comptroller race presents an opportunity to
demonstrate the power of small donors. Although current New York State
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has declined to participate in public financing—citing
concerns over the inadequate
structure of the pilot program—his Republican
challenger Robert Antonacci has said that he will op-in. Donations up to $175 by
New Yorkers to Antonacci’s campaign will be matched with public funds at a
6-to-1 ratio, if he first qualifies by raising $200,000 including at least
2,000 small contributions. In return he will have to abide by spending limits
and a $6,000 per person contribution restriction. Non-participating candidates
running statewide, meanwhile, can accept up to $41,000 from a single donor. “Public
financing empowers local donors who can actually vote for the candidate. It
forces candidates to court us, one small donation at a time,” Rubin explained.
And until state legislators pass reforms that apply to all races in the state,
“we will get elected officials purchased for us by others, with the awful
results we see in Albany and Washington.”

Major Issues Unresolved for Final Week of NY Legislative Session

With just one week left in
the New York State legislative session, press outlets are predicting that few
big-ticket issues, such as public campaign financing, the women’s equality
agenda, medical marijuana or the Dream Act, will
be resolved. Although Governor Andrew
Cuomo has publicly
vowed to campaign against the
ruling coalition in the senate unless headway is made on some key issues,
Democrats in the chamber are
not optimistic about legislative
progress. “Whether they allow
certain things to get done, it’s up to them,” said Senate Democratic Conference
Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins in reference to the senate ruling coalition of
Republicans and five breakaway Democrats. However, Senator Jeffrey Klein, the
leader of the Independent Democratic Conference and Majority Co-leader of the
chamber, did not rule out the possibility of public financing reform passing before
the session is over. “We still have two weeks to govern,” he stated, “[t]he
political season has not started yet as far as I’m concerned.”

Albany Times-Union:
Bruno Acquittal Demonstrates Need for Reform

Last month, former New York State
Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno was
acquitted of corruption-related
charges. Bruno allegedly accepted $20,000 per month in consulting fees from a
businessman with a stake in Evident Technologies, according to prosecutors, and
then subsequently approved a $250,000 state grant to the company. This did not
qualify as corruption under federal law, the jury determined. TheTimes-Union
said that the trial was a
troubling demonstration that ethics and campaign finance laws need to be reformed
in Albany. To “take money from somebody doing business with the state they can
influence,” should be illegal, the newspaper wrote. And there should be more
stringent restrictions on what campaign funds can be used for, along with significantly
lower contribution limits.

Corruption Trial of New York Officials Brings New Revelations

The trial of New York State
Senator Malcolm Smith has brought to light new evidence concerning his alleged scheme
to become mayor of New York City. According to the FBI, Smith wanted to become
the leader of the Senate Democrats, in an effort to raise his profile and subsequently
run for the mayoral race in New York City. Smith asked Moses “Mark” Stern, a
government informant posing as a businessman, to
give him $27,000—money that was later to be
dispersed to
other senators to cement his influence. It
“puts me in a better position to run for mayor than just being in the senate,”
Smith told Stern. Following this, at a meeting between Stern, Smith and another
FBI informant, Smith asked the men for their help in persuading three of the
five Republican County Chairmen to authorize his mayoral candidacy on the
Republican Party line. Smith sought
to do this by bribing
the officials, prosecutors allege, using
former New York City Councilman Dan Halloran as his middle-man.

Friday, June 06, 2014

The
Brennan Center regularly compiles the latest news concerning the corrosive
nature of money in New York State politics—and the ongoing need for public
financing and robust campaign finance reform. This week’s links were
contributed by Syed Zaidi.

At the
Working Families Party’s convention this weekend, the progressive third party nominated Governor
Andrew Cuomo,
giving him its ballot line in the upcoming gubernatorial election. Cuomo
captured 58 percent of the state committee’s weighted vote, while Fordham law
professor Zephyr Teachout—who has challenged Cuomo for his failure to address
legislative corruption—received 41 percent. In a video message, the governor
informed WFP delegates that he is firmly committed to passing
progressive priorities including public financing of elections, a higher minimum
wage, the Dream Act, and women’s equality initiatives. “To make this agenda a
reality, we must change the leadership of the Senate,” he stated. For the first
time, Cuomo openly said that he would oppose the Senate Independent Democratic
Conference: “Either they announce that they agree to come back to the
Democratic Party, or they will face primaries this year from our unified
Democratic coalition.” Teachout is still considering contesting Cuomo in the
Democratic primary. She would need 15,000 signatures on nominating petitions by
July 9th to get onto the ballot.

Working Families Party Endorses Challengers to Independent
Democratic Conference

In
addition to Governor Cuomo, the Working Families Party (WFP) endorsed
candidates challenging two members of the Senate Independent Democratic
Conference (IDC). The IDC –composed of five breakaway Democrats—rules the state
senate in a coalition with the Republicans. Former New York State Attorney
General Oliver Koppell, running against IDC head and Senate Majority
Co-leader Jeffrey Klein, garnered the endorsement of the WFP for the 34th
district in the Bronx. However a number of unions in the party, including the
Hotel Trades Council, the United Federation of Teachers and the Mason Tenders,
backed Klein instead. Koppell has said that
legislative priorities, such as public financing of elections and the Dream Act,
would have passed if the Democrats controlled the chamber instead of the IDC. A
spokeswoman for the IDC said that Senator Klein “is a lifelong Democrat who is
not walking away from his strong record of core Democratic legislative
accomplishments and looks forward to a healthy debate of ideas…in the coming
election.” In the 11th district, located in Queens, the WFP endorsed
former New York City Comptroller John Liu over the current incumbent, IDC Senator
Tony Avella.

Buffalo
News: Without Aggregate
Contribution Limits, Reform Even More Critical

In an editorial
on Monday, the Buffalo News criticized the New York State Board of
Election’s decision to not enforce the state’s $150,000 aggregate contribution
limit, saying it sends a clear message that the system is “broken.” The
announcement from the state board came following two recentcourt decisions concerning aggregate
contribution limits. The upstate newspaper argued that the continual erosion of
campaign finance regulations would cede even more power to wealthy special
interests that wish “to buy influence across the state.” The dominance of big money
in state politics will generate greater opportunities for legislative
malfeasance, exacerbating New York’s culture of corruption. The editorial
concluded that reform is now critical, starting with lowering the sky-high
individual contribution limits.

New York Elected Officials Spent Campaign Funds
on Legal Defense

According
to the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), New York State elected
officials have spent more than $7 million in legal fees using
their campaign funds in the past 10 years. Unfortunately, many lawmakers in
Albany have faced a plethora of legal
problems
related to corruption or other unethical or illegal conduct in recent years.
Under state law, politicians are not prohibited from using their campaign funds
for legal defense. Former state Senator Carl Kruger, for example, faced one of
the costliest legal battles, and spent $1.7 million from his war chest on
defense attorneys. In 2012, he was sentenced to prison for corruption related
to bribes. Bill Mahoney, NYPIRG’s research coordinator, said that legislators
and Governor Cuomo have “made promises they are going to fix the [campaign
finance] system…and this is something we strongly encourage them to include.”